Lightspeed Champion
Life Is Sweet! Nice to Meet You
(Domino)
Releasing: 1 February [U.K.] 16 February [U.S.]

“Marlene”, the first single from the sophomore Lightspeed Champion (of Test Icicles fame) album has a pretty snazzy trailer. They way things are going, I wouldn’t be surprised if everything started getting trailers. Vaccinations. Traffic violations. Filibusters. It’s a slippery slope. Nigh frictionless, dare I say.

SONG LIST
01 Dead Head Blues
02 Marlene
03 There’s Nothing Underwater
04 Intermission
05 Faculty of Fears
06 The Big Guns of Highsmith
07 Romart
08 I Don’t Want to Wake Up Alone
09 Madame Van Damme
10 Smooth Day (At the Library)
11 Intermission 2
12 Sweetheart
13 Etude Op.3 “Goodnight Michalek”
14 Middle of the Dark
15 A Bridge and a Goodbye

—Tyler Gould

Norah Jones
The Fall
(Blue Note)
Release: 17 November

Norah Jones is debuting her latest as part of NPR’s “Exclusive New Music” series. You can stream the album in its entirety over at the NPR website. This time around, Jones worked with the likes of Ryan Adams and Tom Waits, but her new album is no doubt still very jazzy, very adult contemporary.

SONG LIST
01 Chasing Pirates
02 Even Though
03 Light As A Feather
04 Young Blood
05 I Wouldn’t Need You
06 Waiting
07 It’s Gonna Be
08 You’ve Ruined me
09 Back To Manhattan
10 Stuck
11 December
12 Tell Yer Mama
13. Man of the Hour

—Katharine Wray

Annie
Don’t Stop
(Smalltown Supersound)
Releasing: 17 November (U.S.)

Norwegian dance phenom Annie is releasing the already-out-in-Britain Don’t Stop in the U.S. of A. later this month. There is nothing confusing about Annie’s electro-pop that is both catchy as hell and intelligent.

SONG LIST
01 Hey Annie
02 My Love Is Better
03 Bad Times
04 Don’t Stop
05 I Don’t Like Your Band
06 Songs Remind Me of You
07 Marie Cherie
08 Take You Home
09 The Breakfast Song
10 Loco
11 When the Night
12 Heaven and Hell

Annie
I Don’t Like Your Band [MP3]
     

My Love Is Better (Sunkh Knight Remix) [MP3]
     

—Katharine Wray

Retribution Gospel Choir
2
(Sub Pop)
Releasing: 26 January

This is the second album from Low guitarist Alan Sparhawk’s peppier, poppier other band. Stream versions of “Electric Guitar” and “White Wolf” over at the Retribution Gospel Choir MySpace.

SONG LIST
01 Hide It Away
02 Your Bird
03 ‘68 Comeback
04 Workin’ Hard
05 Poor Man’s Daughter
06 White Wolf
07 The Last of the Blue Dream
09 Something’s Going to Break
10 Electric Guitar
11 Bless Us All

—Tyler Gould

The Fourth Kind, a provocative thriller set in Nome, Alaska, is the story of psychologist Dr Abigail Tyler (Milla Jovovich) and the videotaped sessions she made with traumatized patients. In the tapes, based on actual case studies, evidence of an disturbing alien abduction emerges. Spooky, no?

—Ashley Cooper

Snow Patrol
Up to Now
(Fiction/A&M)
Releasing: 18 November

Snow Patrol, who found major success with “Chasing Cars”, will be releasing Up to Now, a compilation of highlights from their 15 years in music. The album will have three completely new songs in addition to the oldies, including this single, “Just Say Yes”.

SONG LIST
Disc One
01 Chocolate
02 Chasing Cars
03 Crack The Shutters
04 Set The Fire To The Third Bar
05 Crazy In Love
06 Just Say Yes
07 Batten Down The Hatch
08 You’re All I Have
09 Hands Open
10 Cartwheels
11 The Planets Bend Between Us (2009 Version)
12 Ask Me How I Am
13 On-Off
14 Making Enemies
15 Run (Live at the Union Chapel)

Disc Two
01 Take Back the City
02 Shut Your Eyes
03 An Olive Grove Facing the Sea (2009 Version)
04 Run
05 Give Me Strength
06 Signal Fire
07 Spitting Games
08 Open Your Eyes
09 Dark Roman Wine
10 Fifteen Minutes Old
11 You Are My Joy
12 Golden Floor
13 Starfighter Pilot
14 PPP
15 Chasing Cars (Live at the Union Chapel)

—Katharine Wray